From "The Glories of Mary" by St.
Alphonsus Liguori
Ejaculations to Mary,
Conversion on a deathbed
Refuge of Sinners Mary
Refuge of Sinners
•A few days before the feast of the Annunciation,
a certain priest at Strasburg was asked to visit a gentle-
man who was mortally ill. The priest made a visit, but O Holy Mary refuge of sinners, pray for
noticed at once, during his conversation, that the dying all in the lamentable state of mortal sin.
man was one who had long since lost his faith and filled
his mind with the incongruities of what he considered O Mother of God! Most powerful advo-
a more modern philosophy. cate of sinners, I invoke thee especially on
•After the priest had exhausted all his resources and behalf of the most obdurate.
had made no impression upon the closed heart of the man,
he said to him: My dear friend, it fills me with fear and sor-
row to see you approaching eternity without being recon-
ciled to Our Lord. You have refused everything I have asked
of you so far; do not refuse me this last request. Say a little
prayer to the Blessed Virgin every day. If you have no con-
fidence in the prayer yourself, say it in my name, for I have
such confidence in her intercession that I believe she will
even consider an appeal to her made in this way. Promise
me that you will do this and I feel assured that by the time
of her next feast you will have made your peace with God.
•The man promised to say St. Bernard's great prayer,
the Memorare, every day. On the day of the Annuncia-
tion the priest made the third visit. But the patient was
a changed man by this time. He confessed his sins with
all the evidences of contrition, received communion and
died an edifying death.
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Refugium
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Why is Mary the Memorare
Rufuge of Sinners? of St. Bernard
•When sin entered the world, such a blight rested upon Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
it, that God communed no longer with man as He was wont that never was it known that anyone who fled to
to do. There was no fit refuge for Him. All was darkness. In
thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy
his transgression man closed his heart against his God, Who
could find no delight in a place defiled by sin, where He once intercession was left unaided.
loved to dwell. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee,
•For thousands years, tears and lamentations marked man's O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come;
pathway on earth. Deprived of God's presence, all was sorrow, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
and darkness covered the face of the earth. From time to time
some slight hope entered into the heart of man, when, through O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not
the rifts in the clouds that overspread the world, a faint light my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer
from Heaven would come to him. At last the day dawned. me. Amen.
•From His throne, the Almighty beheld a refuge in the per-
Prayer of St. Pius X
son of a humble virgin, where He could find once more an
abode among men. He would descend in the person of His
Divine Son into that refuge in which He took delight, become
one of us and repair the wrong done by Adam, father of the •Man had sinned in Adam, but he sighed for the promised Immaculate Virgin, the Refuge of Sinners, thou
human race. No stain of any kind could exist where He chose to Redeemer who came to him under the shelter of His Virgin
Mother Mary. Only those who sought Him through Mary were who, to repair the outrages committed against
find shelter. In Mary full of grace, Mary most pure, most chaste,
Mary immaculate, He found a suitable refuge, where He could blessed in finding Him. God, and the evil inflicted on man by sin, didst
enter without umbrage to His infinite majesty and sanctity. resign thyself to the death of thy divine Son, be
•We must turn toward Mary who sheltered Jesus and who is
the refuge to which all sinners may look for safety and salvation ever propitious to us, and carry on thy work of zeal
•One of the titles which is the most encouraging to poor
sinners, and under which the church teaches us to invoke in Christ Jesus, whom they will find through Mary, the secure and love for us in Heaven, where thou reignest so
Mary in the Litany of Loretto, is that of 'Refuge of sinners.' refuge of sinners. gloriously.
•God honoured her in the beginning, He still honours her. He We wish to be thy children, do thou show
lavished His graces upon her and she faithfully responded to all
thyself a Mother to us; obtain from the Divine
of them. All who are sin-burdened and far from their true home,
should, like the soldier upon the battlefield, who, wounded and Restorer, Jesus, that by applying to our souls the
bleeding, thinks of his mother, remember their Mother Mary fruits of His passion and death, He may free us
and seek her aid. She will be their secure refuge and under her from the bonds of our iniquities.
benign protection, they will find their merciful Saviour. The very
May He be our light in the darkness, our
angels will rejoice because he who was lost has returned, and
found through Mary, a safe refuge for all time. strength in weakness, our help in danger, so that
after He has consoled us by His grace and love in
O Lady, thou art the refuge of the sick, poor, reject time, He may permit us to see, possess, and love
me not; for as I am the poorest and most infirm of all, Him in eternity. Amen.
I have the greatest right to be welcomed by thee. Indulgence of 200 days, once a day (24th of August 1904)
